The present invention relates to an apparatus having a liquid crystal display panel, for recording/playing back a television signal by utilizing a digital tape recorder system.
Along with the recent rapid advances in AV (audiovideo) equipment, various types of apparatuses have become commercially available.
A home VTR (video tape recorder) has been developed to meet the need for watching a TV program, not at the time of broadcasting, but at a desired time. Such home VTRs have grown very popular and are in widespread use. A home VTR records analog video signals on a magnetic tape. High-performance Hi-Fi video recorders, improvement similar products, are also commercially available. A Hi-Fi video recorder records on the magnetic tape frequency-modulated TV-video and TV-audio signals, thus recording and reproducing an image with high resolution. The Hi-Fi VTR has a complicated circuit arrangement and is thus bulky.
Demand has also arisen for apparatuses which can receive a TV broadcast at any location. In order to satisfy this demand, liquid crystal television sets have been developed and manufactured, as described in U.S. Patent No. 4,523,232 issued to Osamu Kameda and Takahiro Fuse. If TV programs are regarded as an information source, a minimum image resolution is satisfactory. The liquid crystal television receivers now commercially available have been developed based on this assumption.
Strong demand has also arisen for high-quality audio equipment. Extensive studies on DATs (Digital Audio Tape Recorders) have been recently made to answer the above demand, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,523,237 issued to S. Fukuda, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,539,605 issued to T. Hoshino. DAT systems are classified into a stationary head type DAT (S-DAT) and a rotary head type DAT (R-DAT). According to the DAT system, an analog audio signal is recorded in the form of a PCM signal on a DAT tape. The PCM signal is played back in the form of an analog audio signal. The DAT system can record and play back PCM signals with higher fidelity them a conventional analog recording system.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,138,694 issued to T. Doi and A. Iga, U.S. Pat. No. 4,542,418 issued to S. Yoneyama et. al., and U.S. Pat. No. 4,542,419 issued to M. Morio et. al. disclose examples of an apparatus for recording an analog audio signal in the form of a PCM signal on a given tape to achieve recording and playback with high fidelity, and for selectively recording a video signal on the given tape. The video signal is, however, recorded as an analog signal in these systems since a digital video signal requires a wide bandwidth and cannot be recorded on the DAT tape.
Demand has thus arisen for an apparatus for recording and playing back TV programs from any location to allow collection of information from these programs and for producing sounds with high quality.